babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.

Don Martin's political show on CTV tonight had some jerks (including Jean LaPierre) laughing at the students for not understanding what they were agreeing to and thereby showing the need for those students to get educated.

Far from being closer to a resolution, the tuition crisis veered toward disaster on Monday as students began largely rejecting an offer that was supposed to settle the three-month student strike.

Voting results weren't helped by student leaders' accusations that government officials had doctored their verbal agreement before putting together the final draft to present to students.

And anger mounted on the part of students, who said they were starting to feel they had been duped by the government and university officials.

"The document doesn't represent what we had been talking about in those 22 hours," said Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ). "The government said they were trying to create a win-win situation; now they're saying students are the losers.

As the tear gas cleared in Victoriaville, witnesses of the mayhem began to compare notes Monday, with many blaming the Sûreté du Québec’s riot squad for using tear gas unnecessarily, firing plastic bullets and even hampering ambulances from getting to the injured.

There were calls for an independent investigation into how one demonstrator, Maxence Valade, lost an eye and another, Alexandre Allard, was knocked unconscious – suffering a skull fracture and brain contusion after being hit in the head by what many witnesses said was a plastic bullet. [...]

Scott Weinstein, a nurse who attends demonstrations regularly as a medic, said it is an egregious violation of protocol for police to fire plastic bullets at people’s heads. Normally, he said, they aim for the legs.

“I feel pretty strongly that they were ordered to shoot in the head to intimidate the student representatives at the negotiating table,” he said. “Because (the representatives) were pretty shaken up (when they came out of the hotel to call for calm).”

Remarkably, Quebec’s major trade union leaders — experienced negotiators in hard-fought bargaining with businesses and governments — apparently advised the student leaders to accept the shabby offer presented to them by the Charest government. Although to date little has been said publicly about their role, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that their intervention did nothing to aid the students’ struggle and may in fact have undermined it.

Judging from this week’s votes rejecting the offer, however, hundreds of thousands of students have not been taken in. Their anger, and renewed mobilization, may even be preparing the way for a new advance.

While speculation on the ultimate outcome of this massive uprising is premature, it is already clear that even if the strike ends without major gains, the students have not been defeated. They have fought impressively, to the best of their ability. And they have ignited a major debate in Quebec society, challenging neoliberal prerogatives and opening the prospect of “another Quebec” in which access to education will be a basic social need, available to all irrespective of income, and not a commodity for which access and content is a function of big business exigencies. The students have set the parameters for the continuation of this important debate, which has facets that reach far beyond public education as such.

Responding to calls on social media and on the Coalition Large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) online events calendar, around 250 protesters gathered at Phillips Square on Tuesday morning for a “Méga Manif-Action” with the intent of causing economic disruption in Montreal’s city center.

At around 7:40 a.m., demonstrators marched south in two groups toward the World Trade Centre Montreal (Centre de Commerce Mondial de Montréal). Protesters blocked all entrances to the Centre, preventing its workers from entering.

Protesters also formed blockades at the intersection of Saint-Jacques and Square-Victoria streets. At Square-Victoria, around fifteen SPVM officers in riot gear arrived and formed a line facing protesters. The protesters advanced and taunted police. Many were masked and carried goggles....

The Concordia Student Union voted unanimously at a special council meeting on May 8 to reject the Charest government’s recent tuition offer.

Around 50 students showed up to the meeting. While those not on council lack voting rights, the discussion portion of the meeting was open to all.

Well, almost all. CSU President Lex Gill asked that “all external media” leave the meeting, clarifying that only The Link, CUTV, CJLO and The Concordian were welcome.

“This is a way for us to poll student association on their feelings, and have that reflect our position on the FEUQ,” explained VP External Chad Walcott.

The CSU holds a total of six votes at the federation, the highest number any group can hold. Gill clarified early on that any decision rendered by council would be the decision brought to the FEUQ table.

The meeting was momentarily thrown off the rails by a brief visit from Board of Governors chair Peter Kruyt.

“I’m here because I was interested” said Kruyt after several students in the audience heckled him. “But I can leave if you don’t want me here.”

The remainder of the meeting moved on relatively uneventfully. The vote was called and passed only two hours after the meeting’s start.

“Like many student councils in Quebec, the CSU, in communication with its members, has rejected the government’s offer,” said Gill following the meeting.